North American High

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Description:

The North American High (also Canadian High/Anticyclone, sometimes in Europe Greenland High/Anticyclone) is an impermanent high-pressure area or anticyclone created by anticyclogenesis (anticyclone + the Greek word genesis, meaning "birth, origin"), a formative process that occurs when cool or cold dry air settles onto North America.

North American Highs moves eastwards across the continent, often in the company of one or more low-pressure cells or cyclones. Its cold, dense air does not extend usually above 3 km (2 miles), lower than the Canadian Rockies. Sometimes, in winter it breaks free and passes over the Rockies and brings a cold front into Southwestern United States and Mexico, freezing crops and bringing snow into Mexico's mountains as far south as Jalisco. The high’s usual location east of the Rockies shelters it from the relatively warm Pacific Ocean and helps it maintain its strength. The average January sea level pressure at its centre is about 1,020 millibars (30.12 inches of mercury). The Canadian high often moves southeastward until it eventually reaches the Atlantic Ocean, where it merges with the Azores high. In the summer the Canadian high circulates cool, dry air to the United States east of the Rockies and parts of southern Canada.